Strongly proto-rational at youth; less so with age. Could it be that Earthlings were born, as true humans were, completely proto-rational, but instead of being educated in a way that developed their minds, had their embryonic mental powers stamped out by their social herd? If so, then maybe something could be done to save them.
They reached an open field where groups of young Earthling men and women were running around, throwing an ellipsoidal inflatable object made of dead animal skin from one to another. One of the young men came trotting up to the family.
“Hi Sal,” he said. “Care for a little touch -football? We’re playing Mahopac today, and we’re short handed.” He turned in the direction of Hamilton. “I see your big brother is home from the war. Hey Hamster, still know how to throw the old ball around?”
Hamilton smiled and emitted a crude proto-telepathic affirmative. “Sure. Good seeing you again, Tom.”
Tom looked at Aurora, letting his gaze wander from her feet to her head. “And who might this be? Has there been some kind of mistake? Maybe I should join the army, too.”
“Her name is Alice,” Hamilton said.
“Whoa. Good going, Hamster. So, Alice, how are you at touch football?”
Aurora had no idea. She answered honestly.“I don’t know.I’ve never tried.”
The stranger gave a slight frown, but Hamilton said, “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll do fine.”
The game was very frustrating. The Mahopaclings had a larger percentage of males on their team than the Peekskillings, and most of them were bigger and faster than Hamilton and his friends. Consequently, they were able to run with the spheroid across the field twice during a time span in which the Peekskillings were only able to accomplish the same feat once. On one occasion, Hamilton kicked the spheroid to the far end of the field, and while this accomplishment apparently had some value, it was of a lower order than a run-across. In apparent deference to her inexperience, the stranger on the Peekskilling team who always got the spheroid first never threw it to her, forcing her to spend most of the game running around without any ability to affect the proceedings. There was some kind of time limit to the game, and as it approached, the fact that the Mahopaclings had accomplished more caused all the Peekskillings to become very sad.
The Peekskillings gathered for a little group meeting away from the other team.
“OK, this is it,” Tom said. “Fourth down, 50 yards to go. We’re three points behind and up against the time-limit. This is our last chance. A first down would do us no good, but a field goal would at least tie the game. Hamster, do you think you can doit?”
Hamilton looked down the field in the direction they were supposed to travel. “I don’t know,” he said doubtfully. “It’s pretty far.”
“It’s our only hope,” Tomsaid decisively. “So here’s the play. The Hamster will stand to my left. I’ll lateral him the ball. Bill and Sam will stay on the scrimmage line in front of him to block, the rest of you run off to the right and divert them as best as youcan.”
They went back to line up facing the Mahopaclings.“Hup, hup,hup!” Tom said, and suddenly everyone was in motion.
Aurora ran off the right, as ordered, then looked back. Hamilton had the spheroid, and was preparing to kick it. However she could see that he did not believe he could project it all the way across the field, and a quick elementary calculation combining the four relevant variables of the strength of his muscles, the Earth’s gravity, the mass and probable drag coefficient of the spheroid showed that he was right. However the area in the middle of the field directly in front of him was bereft of Mahopaclings. If he were to throw the ball there, she could run to meet it and achieve a run-across.
She telepathed him the relevant thought. “Hamilton, throw the sphe- roid, there!”
Hamilton did a double-take and looked at the empty spot and then at her. He stopped his pre-kicking motion. Aurora reversed her own direction of motion and ran towards the vacant spot. Suddenly, Hamilton hurled the spheroid, and it moved fast and level, spinning in the manner of the particles emitted by the Earthling projectile weapons on an interception course with Aurora. She jumped in the air to catch it.
As she landed she sensed a Mahopacling running up behind her, so she used her leg elastic capability to bounce off in a line perpendicular to her pursuer’s line of motion. She whirled, to face another Mahopacling positioned directly in front of her required line of advance. She leaned quickly to the left and then the right, and noted that her adversary did the same, preparing to run in whatever direction she did. Scanning his outer mind, she could see through his eyes that another Mahopacling was coming up on her from behind. With no time to be lost, she leaned to the left again and threw him the conviction that she was about to run in that direction. Then she bolted to the right, escaping past him. Two more Mahopaclings appeared in front of her in succession, but she faked them out the same way.
Now she was running down the edge of field, and a group of Peekskilling game-watchers who had been sitting on a field-side set of tiered benches had jumped to their feet, and were shouting,“Go! Go! Go! Go!”
However there were still two remaining Mahopaclings, fast movers both, and they were running down the field on a course converging with hers. A quick calculation showed that she would not be able to evade them. But then she sensed Sally, moving just a bit behind them. If Sally would change her direction of motion to the left, Aurora would be able to swing sharply to the right, and by the time the two Mahopaclings reacted, Sally would be positioned as an effective obstacle in their path of pursuit.
As subtly as she could, Aurora slipped the suggestion for the required course of action into the periphery of Sally’s outer mind. The response was instantaneous. “Alice, this way!” the girl shouted.
Aurora braked her motion, and then took off in the required new direction. The Mahopaclings turned swiftly too, but as if by lucky chance, they found Sally directly in their way. They were bigger than her, and bowled her over instantly, but one of them went down himself in the process, while the other stumbled for a moment, long enough for Aurora to get downfield of him. Now all she had to do was outrun him in a direct sprint for the run-across finish line.
“On Wisconsin!” Harry Hamilton bellowed from the side of the field. Then she was across the finish line and her Peekskilling team-companions were hoisting her on their shoulders, yelling and cheering. They smelled awful, but their thoughts felt good.
To celebrate their victory, the team and their friends had all gone to a place where they were given canisters filled with either a hideous urinecolored brain-destroying toxic liquid with white foam on top or frozen cow-milk mixed with excessive quantities of sugar. Most of the Earthlings selected the urine simulant, but given the choice, Aurora took the sugared-cow-milk-ice without hesitation. Sally seemed to want the yellow fluid, but her parents made her take the frozen sugar cow-milk instead. They said it was better for her, but chose the stinking urine-like liquid for themselves.
After enjoying this questionable repast together, the team split up to retire to their respective hovels. While some traveled with the Hamiltons part of the way back to their home, these others eventually departed in their own directions, leaving the family walking alone.
Then the sound of a shrill siren filled the air.
Immediately, all members of the Hamilton family dropped to their knees, facing south. Dozens of Peekskillings poured out of their houses and fell to their knees as well. Bewildered, Aurora quickly mimicked them, kneeling down beside Sally.
“What’s going on?” she asked the girl.
Sally looked at her with an amazed expression. “It’s the Call to Prayer. You don’t know what the Call to Prayer is?”
Aurora shook her head. “No. What do we do?”
Sally looked quickly to either side, and then whispered, “copy me. If
you don’t, you can get into a lot of trouble.”
Aurora nodded her assent.
Then the Eart
hlings all stuck their faces close to the ground and
began to chant in unison.
“Our father, who art in Washington.
Infallible leader, holiest of mortals,
True son of Jesus, our lord of love.
We love you. We shall live for you, and die for you,
As you lead us to salvation,
through extermination,
of the pagan spawn of Satan.
Death to pagans.
Death to pagans.
Death to pagans.
Death to…”
As this monotonous chant went on, Aurora could hear the crackling
roar of snapping neurons in the brains of the nearby Earthlings. It was horrible. The Earthlings’ exercise of group immersion/submission in the herd-mind was even more damaging to their mental constitutions than their toxic drinks.
Chapter 28
That afternoon, Sally got some time to herself. She locked herself in her room and logged on her computer to cruise the internet. There was something she wanted to find out.
She had listened carefully, and then written the mysterious words down. “Olekildi, Aladapa Minu.” What language were they? And what did they mean?
She tried a large number of online search engines, encyclopedias, and dictionaries, but none of them turned up any positive results. Finally in frustration, she gave up looking herself and logged on to one of her favorite chatrooms. This one was frequented by a lot of foreign book fans. The people who hung out in it were very literate. Maybe one of them would know.
She typed in her nom-de-plume for this group. >Portia here. Who else is around?
Answers came back. As per the group’s convention, they were all named after either famous authors or characters.
>Dante
>Clemens
>Esmerelda
>Natasha
>Pierre
>Saki
A good turnout. Sally pounded in her query. Her words appeared on her screen, followed by those of the others.
Portia > Does anyone here know what the words “Olekildi, Aladapa Minu mean? Or even recognize the language?”
Dante > It’s not Italian, I can tell you that.
Esmerelda > Duhhhh.
Clemens > It sounds like Hawaiian. Saki > Yes it does. But I am Hawaiian, and I can tell you it doesn’t make any sense in any island dialect I know.
Esmerelda > I would say it was Hungarian.
Portia > No. I tried a Hungarian dictionary. Itisn’t Hungarian.
Pierre > Maybe it’s Finnish.
Natasha > It does sound a little like Finnish. I’m from Saint Petersburg, and we meet Finns sometimes. Are you sure the first word is Olekildi?
Portia > Yes.
Natasha > Then it’s not Finnish. Finns used the phrase Ole Kiltie to mean“Please.” Butit’s two words, not one, andit’s definitely a“t” sound, not a“d.”
Pierre > True. Also I’m checking my online dictionary now. “Aladapa” doesn’t resemble any Finnish word.
Natasha > Although “Minua” would be Finnish for “me.”
Sally thought for a moment, then typed.
Portia > I think the person who used these words was from Wisconsin. Do a lot of people of Finnish heritage live in Wisconsin?
Clemens > There’s a lot of Swedes, I can tell you that.
Well, that was something. Sally followed up the possibility.
Portia > Sweden is right next to Finland. Are their languages similar?
Natasha > No. They are completely different.
No luck.
Dante > Portia, did you met the person who spoke this language?
Portia > Yes. She is my big brother’s girlfriend.
Dante > Does she have razor-sharp pointed teeth?
Sally did a double take.
Portia > No. Of course not.
Dante > Are you sure?
Esmerelda > Come on, Dante, give the kid a break.
Dante > I’m just trying to protect her. ^g^
Pierre > Knock it off, Dante. She’s just a child. You shouldn’t try to scare her.
The conversation had become incomprehensible. Sally wanted an explanation.
Portia > Will someone please tell me what you are talking about?
Natasha > Dante is making a joke. Your brother’s girlfriend apparently speaks a language that resembles Finnish, but isn’t.
Portia > So what’s so funny about that?
Natasha > That would be true if she were a Minervan.
Sally stared at the letters on her computer screen in disbelief. But then the shock was relieved by another line from Dante.
Dante> So, about those pointed teeth?
Esmerelda > I think she has answered that one. No pointed teeth. You don’t need to worry Portia. Your big brother is not dating a Minervan.
Pierre > I wouldn’t be too sure. The report that Minervans file their teeth so they can drink children’s blood could be propaganda. It sounds too extreme to be really true.
Clemens > What are you, some kind of atheist? They are satanic aliens, you know. I suppose you doubt they have horns as well.
Pierre > Actually, I heard that Minervan women were really quite beautiful.
Esmerelda > Keep fantasizing, Pierre. Beautiful alien women from outer space, indeed. What’s your problem? Can’t find a date on Earth?
Saki > If you want to find out if your brother’s girlfriend is a Minervan, challenge her to a race. The one who murdered the two students at LaGuardia outran everybody at the airport. I was in a chatroom yesterday with someone who was there. According to him, they had her surrounded, but she moved so fast that no one could lay a hand on her.
Again Sally froze at the screen, but then she relaxed. The suggestion was powerful, but not decisive. Alice was certainly a good runner, but she was by no means superhuman. If Sally had not provided blocking, those two guys from Mahopac would have caught her short of the end zone. She typed.
Portia > In what other ways are Minervans different from normal people?
Natasha > Supposedly, they can read minds.
Could Alice be a Minervan? The idea was incredible. Certainly there were things about her that didn’t add up. She appeared to be a nice All- American girl, but for a minute it had seemed that she didn’t know what a turkey was. Then there were her initially weird table manners, and the fact that, despite her athletic nature, she had never played touch football before. That her views were non-conformist, Sally did not mind; after all, she was a radical herself. But how was it possible that anyone would not know what the Call to Prayer was? And then there were those mysterious words. Olekildi. Aladapa Minu.
Maybe with the information she had now she could find out what they meant. She called up the Finnish-English translator in her computer. Natasha had said that the Finnish phrase for“please” was Ole Kiltie. And “Minua” was “me.” Close enough. “Aladapa” however, was not Finnish. But what if, in the dialect Alice spoke, “t” was shifted to “d.” The two consonant sounds were pretty close, and that would explain the transition from “Ole Kiltie” to “Olekildi.” So maybe the “d” in “Aladapa” should be “t” as well. That would make “Aladapa” into “Alatapa.” She typed “Alatapa” into the translation line, but no meaning emerged. But what if, like “Olekildi,” “Alatapa” was really two words run together.
She typed in the line; “Ole Kiltie Ala TapaMinua,” and hit the return. This time an English language translation appeared on the line below. In large red letters it said:
“Please Don’t Kill Me.”
In the throes of her nightmare, Alice had been begging for her life. In
Minervan. But that still left the question open. Had she been pleading in Minervan because she was a Minervan, or because she was trying to convince Minervans not to kill her?
Sally had to find out. But how? She couldn’t just ask. A Minervan in disguise would lie anyway. And if it were the case, as she had assumed last night, that Alice was actually a Kenn
ewickian whose family had been murdered by the Minervans, accusing her falsely of being a Minervan would be the cruelest thing she could do. Sally thought long and hard on the issue. If Alice really was a Minervan, there had to be a way to make her give herself away. Finally, she had an idea.
That night, as they each lay down in their beds, Sally turned to Aurora.
“Alice,” she said. “When you were a little girl, what was your favorite book?”
Aurora was alarmed. She could hardly answer truthfully with “Ariel, the Owl Rescuer.” She had no knowledge of titles of Earthling books, let alone which might typically appeal to young girls. Of course, she could find out, simply by reading Sally’s outer mind. Unfortunately she had given her word to Hamilton that she would not do so. But Hamilton had evinced rudimentary telepathic power during the hearing on the Weegee
ship, and his sister had the stronger brain. Perhaps she could be tricked into emitting the correct answer. Aurora moved her psychic position to just outside the periphery of Sally’s outer mind. A favorite book from childhood should have powerful emotions attached to its title. If properly stimulated, even a feeble telepath might well inadvertently project its memory this far. She said to Sally, “What wasyours?”
Sally smiled. “I asked youfirst.” She peered intently at Aurora, awaiting her answer.
The thought of the title of a book did indeed emerge. Aurora seized it and fired it back at the girl.
“The GulagArchipelago,” she said.“It’s such a wonderful book.I’ve always lovedit.”
“Really,” said Sally. “That’s just what I was thinking.”
Chapter 29
“This is Kolta Bruna reporting for the GNS with the latest news from the primitive planetEarth.”
The small TV in the kitchen was on, and the Hamilton family watched it as they finished their breakfast.
The Holy Land: Fanatical Earthling planet assassins are spreading chaos through the galaxy. Is there any nice way to stop them? Page 27